Grace

I'm currently reading a book called The Ragamuffin Gospel. The author, Brennan Manning, brings to light a reality of God that in today's culture seems to be obscured. I say obscured because I didn't grow up in the church, so as an outsider looking in my observation of the church was a group of people who are condemning and judgmental. In order to be acceptable "thou shalt ______" (fill in the blank). This is the first impression I had of the church. One had to jump through the religious hoops to be acceptable, otherwise you were out! Aaah, but, when I actually take a look at the Gospel I see a completely different scene. I see Christ, God the Son, giving it all up for the world. I see One who loves so much that He accepts us right where we are at...a ragamuffin. What is all this anyway???

GRACE

Yes, this is the grace of God. This grace comes out of His abundant and outrageous love for us. This grace is also somewhat foreign to many of us. When you grow up conditioned to believe that there is nothing free and that you must earn everything, grace is indeed something that could very well be a hoax. Nonetheless, grace is real and when one experiences His grace you can't help but let it overflow towards others. We don't have to earn it, we certainly don't deserve it, and we usually don't even ask for it. However, grace is offered to us in spite of all that.

yeah...breath that in for a moment. No preconditions or prerequisites. No auditions. No hoops to jump through. All we have to do is merely accept it.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." --John 3:16

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." --Eph. 2:8-10

Brennan Manning writes that repentance actually comes after redemption. I used to think I had to repent first. Nope, duh, read it again. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith also means complete trust. God loves us first...100%! Then His grace is offered. In the wake of His grace is the invitation to trust Him. He is always asking this question, "Do you trust Me?" It seems to me that we are all wired up to trust another in the wake of grace. It may not come quickly. It may in fact take years. But once we begin to trust in Him, then we are on the journey of repentance.

2 Corinthians 5
(16) "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. "
(17) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

THERE IT IS! It's so simple. Repentance is a product of redemption. This is why we cannot save ourselves. We must be redeemed first by Christ and then we begin to do good things and take our next steps towards Him and the abundant life He offers.

I'm praying for you all.